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William Blake (b. 1991)
A Great Battlefield - A Lone Soldier Sanding in an Open Field, Oil on Linen

2022

About the Item

A solitary figure, head bowed, stands in a field in contemplation of what has just taken place or what is about to take place. "A Great Battlefield" channels the spirit of Winslow Homer's war imagery, bringing it into the contemporary world, asking us to contemplate the decisions forced to be made in wartime, some of which will never leave us. As for the paintings, William uses materials and methods of the Civil War era. The linen on which he paints was in use at that time as well as the tubed oil paints. He is one of the few artists who tacks his canvas to the stretchers using similar tacks that would have been used by Winslow Homer. While he leaves the works unframed for this reason, the artwork could certainly be framed. This piece is unframed. Please contact the gallery for framing options. A Great Battlefield oil on linen 60h x 35w in 152.40h x 88.90w cm WIL029 Known for his highly charged depictions of Civil War reenactments, William Blake’s powerful paintings show the recursive bodies of reenactors as they gesture across time. Participating in over 40 reenactment events, Blake currently interprets as the artist-correspondent Winslow Homer at these battle reenactments. He immerses himself in the materiality of his own obsession by constructing period clothes, camping on battlefields, and documenting the reenactment similar to Homer’s documentation of the authentic war. The figures in the paintings reverberate the past with respect and with a desire to educate, humble, and play. With each annual iteration of American Civil War reenactments, the reanimation of the past encourages a review of history and aids in its continuous revision. For his second exhibition with Gallery Victor Armendariz, William Blake presents A Great Battlefield, a collection of new paintings depicting US Marines at the Gettysburg National Military Park. A Great Battlefield, takes its title from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which poetically looks to the battlefield as a site of rebirth. Following the tradition of nineteenth-century American history painting, Blake uses oil and linen to depict US Marines’ reenacting the 1922 Marine Corps at the Gettysburg battlefield. After the First World War, the Marine Corps hosted summer exercises and reenactments at Civil War battlefields. The largest and most attended of these events was the 1922 Gettysburg event which consisted of an accurate (no tanks, planes) reenactment of Pickett's Charge. In the summer of 2020, William Blake organized a reenactment in cooperation with the United States Marine Corps Historical Company. who posed for this series of paintings. Blake collapses histories and myths into a contemplative look at our Battlefield. William Blake lives and works outside Chicago, IL. As a participant in Civil War reenactments across the country, he portrays the artist Winslow Homer. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he also holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He currently teaches Figure Drawing at Harper College. His work has been published in Fine Art Connoisseur, New American Paintings, The Chicago Tribune, and American Art Collector. He has been a resident artist at the Berkshire Painting Residency, the Vermont Studio Center, the Cuttyhunk Island Residency, and the Lincoln Legacy Residency. William Blake b. 1991, Oshkosh, WI Education 2018 MFA Painting, Tyler School of Art, Temple University 2014 BFA Painting, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2013 Glasgow School of Art Selected Exhibitions 2022 A Great Battlefield, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2020 Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2019 All of Us Curated by Eric Preisendanz, Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 2018 A Grand Review, Tyler School of Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2017 Ocotillo Curated by Jonathan DeDecker, Stella Elkins Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2016 New American Paintings: Midwest Edition, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL Continental Divide, Sidetracked Studio, Evanston, IL 2015 William Blake: Patinas from the American Civil War, Hinsdale Public Library, Hinsdale, IL I Can't Breathe, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL Wall to Wall, Art Space, Chicago, IL 2014 Between the States, Figure One, Champaign, IL Flagg Extension Show, Flagg Gallery, Champaign, IL Figuration, Indi Go Gallery, Champaign, IL RAW, Indi Go Gallery, Champaign, IL 2D Exhibition, Link Gallery, Champaign, IL 2013 Upside Down, Left to Right, Figure One, Champaign, IL Second Year Painting Exhibition, Glasgow, Scotland Awards 2018 Tyler School of Art Dean’s Grant 2017 7th Annual PleinAir Salon June/July 2015 Figurative Finalist, International Art Renewal Center Salon 2014 Florence M. House Scholarship, University of Illinois 2009 Young Emerging Artist Award, Washington University in St. Louis Residencies 2015 Vermont Studio Center Fellowship 2014 Berkshire Painting Residency
  • Creator:
  • Creation Year:
    2022
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 35 in (88.9 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Chicago, IL
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: WIL0291stDibs: LU554310826012
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  • Palm Sunday -A Contemplative Lone Soldier Sanding in an Open Field, Oil on Linen
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    William Blake’s oil painting asks us to perceive the powerful layers of history that shape both art and memory. In Blake’s painting is a man, but what Blake painted is an idea. Hugh Goffinet stares out from the canvas in the dress of a soldier, without being one. He is a reenactor of an African American volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. His inspiration is the Lincolns—the battalion’s volunteers—but they are pictured only symbolically, in his dress. Their inspiration was Lincoln, who many decades earlier helped give meaning to the American Civil War, but who is invisible in the painting except by implication—the pose of Hugh Goffinet—which carefully emulates Lincoln’s pose in the celebrated presidential portrait by George Healy. Entirely hidden, at the deepest layer of history, is the true source of inspiration: the human desire for equality and freedom. To understand, honor, and preserve it requires remembrance, in this case with history animating reenactors who animate art that animates memory. Artist, William Blake channels the spirit of Winslow Homer's war imagery, bringing it into the contemporary world, asking us to reflect upon the decisions forced to be made in wartime, some of which will never leave us. As for the paintings, William uses materials and methods of the Civil War era. The linen on which he paints was in use at that time as well as the tubed oil paints. He is one of the few artists who tacks his canvas to the stretchers using similar tacks that would have been used by Winslow Homer. While he leaves the works unframed for this reason, the artwork could certainly be framed. This piece is unframed. Please contact the gallery for framing options. William Blake Salud Johnny, 2023 oil on linen 76h x 36w in 193.04h x 91.44w cm WIL049 Known for his highly charged depictions of Civil War reenactments, William Blake’s powerful paintings show the recursive bodies of reenactors as they gesture across time. Participating in over 40 reenactment events, Blake currently interprets as the artist-correspondent Winslow Homer at these battle reenactments. He immerses himself in the materiality of his own obsession by constructing period clothes, camping on battlefields, and documenting the reenactment similar to Homer’s documentation of the authentic war. The figures in the paintings reverberate the past with respect and with a desire to educate, humble, and play. With each annual iteration of American Civil War reenactments, the reanimation of the past encourages a review of history and aids in its continuous revision. For his second exhibition with Gallery Victor Armendariz, William Blake presents A Great Battlefield, a collection of new paintings depicting US Marines at the Gettysburg National Military Park. A Great Battlefield, takes its title from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which poetically looks to the battlefield as a site of rebirth. Following the tradition of nineteenth-century American history painting...
    Category

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